Junk Science Week: 2052? More like 2084

Last October, at a conference in Ottawa, systems-management guru Dennis Meadows declared from the podium that it was already “too late for sustainable development.” This would surely be dispiriting news for those who will gather next week at Rio+20 to discuss the nebulous topic. After all, Mr. Meadows is a scientific authority, the lead author of the 1972 book The Limits to Growth, one of the most influential works of modern times.

Limits had been commissioned by a group of self-appointed global guardians called The Club of Rome to study the world “problematique.” According to its blurb, the authors’ “inescapable conclusions are beyond anyone’s grimmest fears.” They had studied the future “with the aid of a giant computer” and it was a place of resource exhaustion, ecological “overshoot” and civilizational collapse. The authors admitted that their model might not be perfect, but asserted that their conclusions wouldn’t change. They thus confirmed that theirs wasn’t a scientific hypothesis to be tested; it was an unshakeable moral conviction to be confirmed. It rejected economics and was impervious to contrary evidence. It was pure junk science. Read more